Once upon a time at the Council of Toledo in AD 589 the emerging religious movement split in two, with Eastern theology becoming 'Orthodox' and Western theology becoming 'Catholic', both going their own way. Enough time had elapsed since the alleged events surrounding the purported Jewish customs-observing Jesus and of whom there is no credible historical record, to prevent the respective geographically based adherents from gaining any hope of establishing for themselves the clear truth of the claims of official origin.

Thus we got two theocratic hierarchies - without a major war - and a long tail of elevated positions, titles and assorted powers handed down from their respective gods. We even had the farcical situation that after prolonged debate, the emminent theologians at the Council of Trent (1545) ruling in the thorny issue of whether or not women had souls, it was decided in their favour that they had. By a three vote majority!

Fast forward to the present day. We have seen mighty theological empires, by now the neo orthodoxy, come and go. We have observed the failure of attempts to replace them with similar, backed by assistance from the material forces of the day.

Spiritualism in its early times, was a vibrant force for truth, standing resolutely against the tainted justice of vested interests. People wilingly demonstrated their individual support in whatever way they could, many being dragged through the local law courts to be belittled and scandalised in the compliant press. Those workers who used their abilities were 'made an example of'.Perhaps this was the peak of Spiritualist achievement, gained despite the open hostility against their right to their own understanding.It is perhaps far too early and completely erroneous to suggest the demise of our 'ism', but change is occuring with the focus coming more and more onto the material, rather than Spiritual aspects of Life.

If willing instruments are to be found, the promise that 'the power of the Spirit is here to stay, in your world' seems robust enough to merit credence whether a newspaper continues its valued contribution to Western society or not.

Spiritualism, that is the fundamental truths which form the philosophy of the Spiritualist movement can never disappear. They are in the world and will continue to be discovered anew by a proportion of people in each generation.

Having said that, and in equally acknowledging that whether a Spiritualist newspaper continues or does not, the power of Spirit will continue to make its presence felt in our world, we, as the Spiritualists of today, have a duty to fight for the right to have an independent public vehicle for sharing of information, knowledge, and other items of interest to Spiritualists.

To let this newspaper die would be a disgrace, and yet further reduce Spiritualism's capacity to express its truths to the world.